The television sketch comedy series At Last the 1948 Show featured Feldman's first screen performances.[3] The other three performers. including Tim Brooke-Taylor and John Cleese, needed a fourth and had Feldman in mind.[3] In one sketch on 1 March 1967, Feldman's character harassed a patient shop assistant (played by Cleese) for a series of fictitious books, achieving success with Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying. The sketch was revived as part of the Monty Python stage show and on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album (both without Feldman).

Feldman was co-author, along with Cleese, Graham Chapman and Brooke-Taylor of the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch, which was also written for At Last the 1948 Show.[3] The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was performed during Amnesty International concerts (by members of Monty Python — once including Rowan Atkinson in place of Python member Eric Idle), as well as during Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl and other Monty Python shows and recordings. This association has led to the common misconception that the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was a Python sketch, with the origin and co-authorship by non-Python writers Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor overlooked or forgotten.[citation needed] Feldman was also script editor on The Frost Report with future members of Monty Python.[3] He wrote the "Class" sketch, in which Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett faced the audience, with their descending order of height suggesting their relative social status as upper class (Cleese), middle class (Barker) and working class (Corbett).[3]

Following his At Last the 1948 Show, Feldman was given his own series on the BBC called Marty (1968),[3]; it featured Brooke-Taylor, John Junkin and Roland MacLeod, with Cleese as one of the writers.[3] Feldman won two BAFTA awards. The second series in 1969 was renamed It's Marty (the second title being retained for the DVD of the show); in 1971 he was signed to a series co-produced by ATV and ABC TV entitled The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, this show lasted one season. In 1974, Dennis Main Wilson (producer for the UK television show Till Death Us Do Part) produced a short sketch series for Feldman on the BBC entitled Marty Back Together Again — a reference to reports about the star's health. But this never captured the impact of the earlier series. The Marty series proved popular enough with an international audience (the first series won the Golden Rose Award at Montreux) to launch a film career. His first feature role was in 1970s Every Home Should Have One.[3]

Feldman spent time in Sohojazz clubs.[3] He found a parallel between "riffing" in a comedy partnership and the improvisation of jazz.[3]

In 1971 Feldman gave evidence in favour of defendants at the Oz trial.[3] He would not swear on The Bible, choosing to "affirm".[3] Throughout his testimony he was disrespectful to the judge.[3]

Feldman's performances on American television included The Dean Martin Show and Marty Feldman's Comedy Machine. On film, he was Igor (pronounced "EYE-gore") in Young Frankenstein where many lines were improvised. Gene Wilder says he had Feldman in mind when he wrote the part.[3] At one point, Dr Frankenstein (Wilder) scolds Igor with the phrase "Damn your eyes!" Feldman turns to the camera, points to his misaligned eyes, grins and says, "Too late!"

Feldman met American comedy writer Alan Spencer on the set of Young Frankenstein when Spencer was a teenager. Spencer was a fan of Feldman as a writer and performer. Feldman offered Spencer guidance that led him to create the television show Sledge Hammer!.[4]

He also made one LP, I Feel a Song Going Off (1969), re-released as The Crazy World of Marty Feldman. The songs were written by Dennis King, John Junkin and Bill Solly (a writer for Max Bygraves and The Two Ronnies).[5] It was re-released as a CD in 2007.

Death

Feldman died from a heart attack in a hotel room in Mexico City on 2 December 1982, during the making of the film Yellowbeard. Cartoonist Sergio Aragonés, who was filming nearby dressed for his role as an armed policeman, abruptly encountered Feldman while introducing himself, frightening Feldman and possibly induced his heart attack. Aragonés has recounted the story with the punchline "I killed Marty Feldman". The story was converted into a strip in Aragonés's issue of DC Comics' Solo.[8]

On the DVD commentary of Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks cites additional factors that may have contributed to Feldman's death: he smoked sometimes six packs of cigarettes daily, drank copious amounts of coffee, and ate a diet rich in eggs and dairy products. Michael Mileham, who made the behind-the-scenes movie Group Madness about the making of Yellowbeard, said he and Feldman swam to an island where a local was selling lobster and coconuts. Mileham and Feldman used the same knife on their lobsters. Mileham said he got shellfish poisoning the next day, and theorised that since Feldman used the same knife he also could have been poisoned. (It can take days to feel symptoms of food poisoning, which could have been a factor in Feldman's heart attack). The stress of altitude—2,300m (7,546 ft) where the air is thin—may also have been a factor.

From Wikiquote

Sourced

Comedy, like sodomy, is an unnatural act.

The Times, June 9, 1969.

Sex is two plus two making five, rather than four. Sex is the X
ingredient that you can't define, and it's that X ingredient
between two people that make both a man and a woman good in bed.
It's all relative. There are no rules.